Judith Curry

Judith A. Curry is chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. A high profile climate communicator, she runs a climate blog and is regularly invited by Republicans to testify at climate hearings about uncertainties in climate understanding and predictions.

Her climate outreach communication has been critized for containing elementary mistakes and inflammatory assertions unsupported by evidence.

Views on climate
Curry believes the IPCC has done a bad job of characterizing uncertainty".

While Curry herself is not a climate change doubter, she has urged that climate scientists listen to doubters' criticisms, and she does not view herself as a climate hawk (one who judges that the risks of climate change are sufficient to warrant a robust response. ) - though somewhat confusingly, she denies playing down the urgency of climate action: "I am saying nothing about that one way or the other".

In September 2010, Curry started a weblog, Climate Etc., which adopted the same "stress-the-uncertainties" approach taken by past efforts to thwart science-based policy actions, as documented by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway in Merchants of Doubt.

Views on disclosure
Curry has said she is not willing to accept non-disclosure as acceptable behavior by scientists. But it's nuanced: when asked "If someone was...[publicly] playing down the urgency of climate action, and they had a relative affiliated with a libertarian organization, would there be an obligation to [voluntarily] disclose the connection?," she replied "No."

Criticisms of published research
Liu and Curry's August 2010 paper, "Accelerated warming of the Southern Ocean and its impacts on the hydrological cycle and sea ice", has been criticized for its failure to cite previous papers drawing the same conclusion, and for its "uncritical use of invalid data". ,

Criticisms of outreach communication
Curry's "public outreach" communication is criticized by prominent climate scientists and other science-aligned climate bloggers for its propensity toward "inflammatory language and over-the-top accusations ...with the...absence of any concrete evidence and [with] errors in matters of simple fact." ,, , , ,.

Coby Beck said: "...Examples of the unreliability of Curry's blog publications are illustrated by Michael Tobis and James Annan, who both showed basic flaws in her understanding of uncertainty and probability, or at least an irresponsible level of sloppiness in expressing herself. Arthur Smith pointed out an under-grad level misunderstanding in her own field's basic terminology.  In one comment some months ago she called the blogger Deep Climate's detailed and documented investigation into the Wegman Report "one of the most reprehensible attacks on a reputable scientist that I have seen" even as she revealed in her incorrect synopsis of the charges that she had not even read it for herself. ... [i.e.] she shows herself ready to publicly criticise someone else in the strongest terms based entirely on second hand information gleaned from places like Climate Audit and Watts Up With That."

Gavin Schmidt has criticised Curry for "not knowing enough about what she has chosen to talk about, for not thinking clearly about the claims she has made with respect to the IPCC , and for flinging serious accusations at other scientists without just cause." .

James Annan has laid out examples of Curry's "history of throwing up vague or demonstrably wrong claims, then running away when shown to be wrong."

Recognition
Judith Curry was awarded the title "climatologist of the year" at the 'post-normal science conference' in Lisbon 2011. It is unclear whether any Institution of note supports this award.

Institutions
From Cury's CV: Earlier positions at Penn State, Purdue University, University of Wisconsin at Madison.
 * 2002- : Georgia Tech, Chair, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
 * 1992-2002 University of Colorado at Boulder, Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Personal
Curry is not married to colleague Peter J. Webster, despite others' statements. (Curry is not related to Koch network attendee and Manhattan Institute trustee Ravenel Curry III. )

Research interests
Curry's research interests include hurricanes, remote sensing, atmospheric modeling, polar climates, air-sea interactions, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for atmospheric research.

Partner was board member, and North America CEO
The business interests of Curry's partner, dovetailed with her research into the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for atmospheric research; partner Peter Webster was affiliated with Aerosonde, a maker of unmanned aerial vehicles used for atmospheric research, including Curry's. , Curriculum Vitae

Conflict? Curry's response
Curry has not yet responded to questions posed as to whether her and her partner's Aerosonde activities constituted a conflict of interest; see reference for details.

CFAN, 2006+
With her partner, Curry has run a weather prediction consulting business, Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN), since 2006. .

Curry to Lemonick: no correlation
During Michael Lemonick's interview with Curry for a October 2010 Scientific American profile, Lemonick reports (pers. comm.) that he asked Curry about potential conflicts of interest, and she responded: "I do receive some funding from the fossil fuel industry.  My company...does [short-term] hurricane forecasting...for an oil company, since 2007. During this period I have been both a strong advocate for the IPCC, and more recently a critic of the IPCC, there is no correlation of this funding with my public statements."

Curry to SourceWatch: full extent of fossil fuel ties
Further details from Curry would seem to suggest no conflict: Curry has clarified that this is the full extent of her ties to fossil fuel interests, and that she has no ties to organizations or individuals with an interest in delaying climate action, or to organizations working on behalf of such interests such as PR firms and science-for-hire firms like New Hope Environmental Services, or subcontractors of such firms.

CFAN's clients not disclosed
The identities of CFAN's clients have not been disclosed.

Disclosure policy questions; Curry's response
Curry has not yet answered two questions about CFAN's clients: why they are not identified, and whether this is by their preference or hers; see reference for details.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Heretic (frame)
 * Scientific American (magazine)
 * Peter J. Webster

External resources

 * Curry's weblog Climate Etc.
 * Curry's Home Page at Georgia Institute of Technology
 * Curry's Curriculum Vitae